The Prince and the Plunder

A book on how Britain took one boy and piles of treasures from Ethiopia

Author: Andrew Heavens

Scroll including a prayer against colic with a note mentioning Magdala

Published February 26, 2024 / by Andrew Heavens / Leave a Comment

What: A scroll made of two pieces of parchment from the mid 19th century with drawings and two prayers against colic. A note mentioning Magdala 1868 is written in English across one of the pictures.

Where: Princeton University Library, Manuscripts Division, One Washington Road, Princeton, New Jersey 08544 USA

Listed as Princeton Ethiopic Magic Scroll No. 172 in the catalogue – https://library.princeton.edu/special-collections/sites/default/files/Ethiopic_Combined.pdf

Provenance: Written across the first drawing in a Western hand is “Madglla [sic] Abyssinia, April 13/1868” and on the reverse is a paper label reading “Presented by Rev. R Hackwell, member of the American Presbyter[ian] Mission, Rawal Pindi Northern India []0th July 1874,” over which is written in a different hand “Jan. 1899 Pres. by Alan Marquand.”

The university’s manuscript division as a whole has more than 600 Ethiopic works. There is also an illuminated manuscript, a diptych icon and a hand cross in the Princeton University Art Museum. But none mention Magdala in their provenance.

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The Four Gospels with an endnote referring to Tewodros

Published February 26, 2024 / by Andrew Heavens / Leave a Comment

What: A manuscript of the four gospels, from the second half of the 17th century

Where: Princeton University Library, Manuscripts Division, One Washington Road, Princeton, New Jersey 08544 USA

Listed as Garrett Ethiopic Manuscript No. 1 i in the catalogue – https://library.princeton.edu/special-collections/sites/default/files/Ethiopic_Combined.pdf

Provenance: It has an endnote on fol. 135v referring to King Tēwodros II – the most recent king mentioned

It is described as “from the library of the Emperor Theodore”in the article PRINCETON’S ETHIOPIC MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS AT 100 in The Princeton University Library Chronicle , Vol. 71, No. 3 (Spring 2010), pp. 461-466.

Background: The broader Robert Garrett collection consists of 113 bound manuscripts in Ge’ez and Amharic. The university’s manuscript division as a whole has more than 600 Ethiopic works.

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A manuscript including Homilies of the Archangel Michael with a note saying ‘brought from Magdala’

Published February 26, 2024 / by Andrew Heavens / Leave a Comment

What: An early 18th century manuscript of Homilies of the Archangel Michael and associated texts, with 23 paintings

Where: Princeton University Library, Manuscripts Division, One Washington Road, Princeton, New Jersey 08544 USA

Listed as Garrett Ethiopic Manuscript No. 2 i in the catalogue – https://library.princeton.edu/special-collections/sites/default/files/Ethiopic_Combined.pdf

Provenance: There is a note in English on the first page that the manuscript was taken from the fortress of King Theodore (Tēwodros II) at Magdala in 1868

See the note here in the digital version of the manuscript – http://pudl.princeton.edu/viewer.php?obj=7fd2dd40-5294-432f-996e-59b9e8ab5019#page/4/mode/2up

It is described as “from the library of the Emperor Theodore”in the article PRINCETON’S ETHIOPIC MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS AT 100 in The Princeton University Library Chronicle , Vol. 71, No. 3 (Spring 2010), pp. 461-466.

Background: The broader Robert Garrett collection consists of 113 bound manuscripts in Ge’ez and Amharic. The university’s manuscript division as a whole has more than 600 Ethiopic works. There is also an illuminated manuscript, a diptych icon and a hand cross in the Princeton University Art Museum. But none mention Magdala in their provenance.

Posted In Festivals & miracles of Mary, Jesus & the angels | Manuscripts
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Mr Reade’s prayer book, last seen near Dublin, ‘picked up after the sack of King Theodore’s palace’

Published February 26, 2024 / by Andrew Heavens / Leave a Comment

What: An 86-page Ethiopian vellum book, possibly of prayers, with “quite beautiful” writing

Where: Last heard of in 1883 when it was in the possession of a George H. Reade of Greythorn, Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire, Dublin). Current whereabouts of the book unknown.

Reade wrote a letter that was printed in the June 1883 edition of the periodical The Bibliographer, looking for information on an 86-page Ethiopian book that had come into his possession via the mother of a soldier on the Abyssinian Expedition.

Col W F Prideaux, who had been one Emperor Tewodros’s captives on Magdala, wrote back with some information and suggestions in the September edition of the Bibliographer.

Read Reade’s description of the book and his account of where it came from in his letter below.

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Posted In Manuscripts | Prayers, psalms, hymns, services
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Colonel Prideaux’s gospel, collected during captivity, last seen in Calcutta *

Published February 26, 2024 / by Andrew Heavens / Leave a Comment

What: A 17th century copy of the Gospel of St John

Where: Last heard of in 1883 when it was in the collection of Col W F Prideaux, who had been one Emperor Tewodros’s captives on Magdala. Current whereabouts of gospel unknown

Prideaux, wrote a letter that was printed in the September 1883 edition of the periodical The Bibolographer. He was replying to an earlier letter from a Mr Reade about a book that had been brought back by one of the soldiers on the Abyssinian Expedition.

Prideaux says in his letter that he brought back a 17th century copy of the Gospel of John. See the bolded passage in his letter below.

(more…)
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A manuscript of the Miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ (OR 620)

Published February 26, 2024 / by Andrew Heavens / Leave a Comment

What: An 18th century Ethiopian manuscript of the Miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ

Where: The British Library, 96 Euston Rd, London NW1 2DB

Ref: OR 620
Digital version – http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Or_620

Provenance:
Stamped on the first page: “Presented by the Secretary of State for India Aug. 1868”
Listed as part of the “Magdala collection” in William Wright’s Catalogue of the Ethiopic manuscripts in the British Museum acquired since the year 1847

Posted In Biblical books | Manuscripts | The Plunder
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